In the mid-1990s Wayne Linklater landed a job researchingthe bands of wild horses that lived in New Zealand's largestmilitary training grounds near Waiouru. For the next fouryears he observed foals born, the love between stallions,mares and their offspring, and also violence, loyalty, betrayaland courage, all played out against an astounding landscape.

Linklater started out believing in the objectivity ofconservation science and that free-roaming horses werea harmful, invasive species. But those four years taughthim differently.

Clear-eyed and backed by deep science, this moving bookis about the fascinating history and lives of wild horses,about the bonds between horses and humans, and aboutbecoming a different sort of conservationist. This is naturewriting of a very high order.